European Parliament Vice-President Diana Wallis yesterday (15 September) welcomed an announcement by the Council that it will “review” plans to draw up a common lobby register for all three European institutions.

“If this materialises, it will represent a welcome evolution in the Council’s position,” said Wallis (click here to read more).

Talks on establishing a joint lobby register between the Commission and the Parliament resumed in May without the Council’s involvement.

The Commission and the Parliament will hold a joint information seminar on the common register on 6 October. Both Wallis and European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šef?ovi? are set to speak at the event.

Christophe Leclercq, EurActiv’s founder, announced that the company would sign up to the register if a media category is created.

“We cover these issues at length. We organised our own transparency conference back in 2009, and held stakeholder workshops before the European Transparency Initiative was launched. Progress has been good, but it is too complex and too slow,” Leclercq said.

“Transparency should be seen not only as regulation of lobbying but as an opportunity to deepen EU policy debates. True to its baseline ‘efficacité et transparence des acteurs européens’, EurActiv intends to register as soon as a media category is created,” he added.